If things have gone from bad to worse and your bank has decided to foreclose, don’t give up hope of keeping your home; there may still be some way to save it. For foreclosure to become a fact of life, you need to have missed more than one payment on your mortgage. Most often you will be at least three payments behind.

The first payment you missed, the bank will send you a late notice. If you do nothing and miss the second payment, the bank will usually try to contact you. At this stage, they still want to help you resolve the situation. If no conclusion is reached, or if they cannot contact you then things go from bad to worse. They may allow another late payment, or they may invoke your acceleration clause instead.

An acceleration clause is when the whole of your mortgage comes due all at once. In other words the bank wants all their money right now. No waiting for thirty years to pay it off. You must pay the whole lot, including all the interest, costs and fees, immediately. This procedure is known as “calling the loan”. It is also the point of no return.

When the bank calls the loan, you need to get a good attorney – because you need legal help. You need an attorney who knows all about foreclosure law and can protect your rights. Strangely enough, it may still be possible to save your house.

But if you do nothing, then the bank will continue with the foreclosure and you will find an eviction notice in your mail within 6 to 12 months, depending on how aggressively the bank pursues their course of action. By the time you get that, your home will have been sold to the highest bidder.

However, with the right attorney to advise and work with you, you can file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy claim and stop the foreclosure in its tracks. This doesn’t mean that you’ll get away with not paying any more debt. It simply gives you time to breathe – and prepare other plans.

If you are delinquent on your mortgage payments, then you could well have other creditors hounding you. Once you’ve put in place the legal foreclosure prevention it also applies to other creditors. All must stop trying to collect moneys owed. Secured debt must still be repaid in full, but unsecured will have to be satisfied with a ten cents in the dollar amount.

The new payment plan that you get under a Chapter 13 will last for up to 5 years, giving you ample time to get back on your feet.

Visit foreclosure.howto-you.com